HONG KONG, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Asia's richest man, Li
Ka-shing, is restructuring his business empire to create two
listed companies, one focusing on property and the other on
telecoms, retail and energy, in a bid to boost their value and
attract more investors.

The 86-year-old Hong Kong tycoon built his sprawling empire
over more than half a century from a plastic flower business,
but has been frustrated that his group's listed companies trade
at a discount to the book values of their net assets, a common
feature of conglomerates.

"This transaction is a watershed event in our group's
history. It is transformational from the point of view of
shareholder value," Li said in a statement on Friday.

Li's two largest listed companies are Cheung Kong (Holdings)
and Hutchison Whampoa, which both run a wide
range of businesses. As on Jan. 7, Cheung Kong, which owns just
under half of Hutchison Whampoa, traded at a 23 percent
discount, or about HK$87 billion ($11.22 billion), to its book
value at the end of June 2014, the statement said.

"The issue of holding company discount has puzzled us for a
long time, until we thought of a way to resolve it during the
second half of last year," Victor Li, executive deputy chairman
of Cheung Kong and Hutchison told a news conference when asked
why they chose to do the restructuring now.

The proposed reorganisation will put the property assets
into a new company, Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd, with
another, CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd, managing ports, telecoms,
retail, energy, aircraft leasing and other businesses. The
transaction will increase transparency of the group and give
investors direct shareholding in the two companies, the
statement said.
Continued...